Surprises and highlights don’t exactly match up well with a 107-loss season. Yet, there were several gratifying eye openers along the way to the Astros’ worst season in organization history.

There was Lucal Harrell, a waiver wire pickup who could factor into the rotation for the next few years.

Jose Altuve established himself as perhaps the only position player with a guaranteed job next spring.

Justin Maxwell also qualifies, as does Jason Castro’s late-season surge (.282 average, .364 OBP, .851 OPS). Off season acquisition Jed Lowrie may have left everyone in his wake for the most pleasant surprise had he remained healthy all year.

But the biggest, most pleasant surprise wasn’t even a player and probably shouldn’t qualify as a surprise. It was the absolute, sold-out dedication by Jeff Luhnow, George Postolos and Jim Crane to fully commit to the rebuilding and stay the course despite agonizing loss after tormenting loss. The Astros’ brass took the old Fram oil filter commercial to heart: “You can pay me now or you can pay me later.”

It was a departure from recent years when the previous administration seemed determined to retool on the fly with over-the-hill retreads while dooming the team to 213 losses over two seasons.

Clearly, the latest front office version of the Astros has chosen to pay up now and reap the reward later. How much later? At this point, that doesn’t matter. What does matter is the solid commitment to the blueprint.

Whether or not you like the approach, a complete organizational makeover is underway and there doesn’t seem to be one sacred cow or one stone that will remained unturned. The Astros announced that the radio crew of Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan won’t be making the trip to the American League with the Astros next season. There will be a new manager in the dugout, new uniforms on the players and it’s likely you’ll need that proverbial program to identify players if you attend opening day.

All while fans wait for the arrival of the latest round of phenom hopefuls like Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, George Springer and others, the road ahead, while filled with bumps, seems straight and narrow compared to the detours of the past seven years.

What was your most satisfying surprise of the 2012 season for the Astros?